GWS coach Leon Cameron has announced he is quitting his role, eight games into his ninth season at the club.
Cameron's contract is due up at the end of 2022 after he signed a two-year extension in 2020, and he and GWS had opted to put off discussions until the end of the season.
However Cameron faced the media on Thursday and said it had been a mutual decision and was the right call. He said he had met up with Giants chief executive David Matthews on Tuesday.
"I said I think it's the right time for the club to have a bit of breathing space to find the next senior coach," he said.
Cameron said that the club's next appointment was going to be for three or four years, not one.
"I don't think there was anything specifically that went wrong," he said.
"We've played in a grand final, we've been in a number of finals series, we've been at the pointy end for a number of years."
Under Cameron the Giants made finals on five occasions, losing the 2019 grand final to Richmond.
This season the Giants are struggling, winning just two of their first eight games to sit 15th on the ladder.
Last weekend GWS kicked just four goals for the day, losing by 53 points to Geelong.
"We've come off a bad loss, let's be honest, we're 2-6," he said.
"I'm disappointed we're 2-6, I know that the players can produce some better results than that."
Cameron said the CEO and the club had supported him to the hilt.
"Coaching is a sapping job that can wear you down a bit," he said.
He said former St Kilda and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon had been someone he admired during his coaching career.
"He (Lyon) always said, you can't be 99 per cent, you've got to be 100 per cent all the time," Cameron said.
The 49-year-old Cameron took over at the club in 2014, replacing inaugural Giants coach Kevin Sheedy.
He began with the Giants coming off a 1-21 season in 2013, and took the club to six wins in his first year, 11 victories in his second year and 17 wins in 2016 on the way to a preliminary final.
Cameron has coached 192 games at GWS, winning 101, drawing four and losing 87.
He will coach once more game for GWS, the match against Carlton at Giants Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The club's senior assistant coach, Mark McVeigh, will then take over as interim coach until the end of the season.
Cameron said it was hard to say what would be next for him.
"I'm not the kind of guy who enjoys having a rest," he said.
"I've been in this game for 34 years as a player and a coach. It's time for a bit of a spell, but you never say never [about coaching again]."
